A view of A321 Neos jet passenger liner in flight. (Photos: Asiana Airlines)

President Han Chang-soo of Asiana Airlines.

Asiana Airlines will eliminate first-class cabins and increase the number of economy and business-class seats from September to accommodate the rising demand for lower-price air fare.

Starting September, business class cabins will replace first-class cabins, which have a 30 to 40 percent cheaper price than the top-class seats.

The airline has been operating three travel classes - first, business and economy class.
The first-class seats have been offered on long-haul routes such as Los Angeles, New York and Frankfurt.

Starting July 8, the airline will also suspend operations of the non-profitable routes to Khabarovsk, Sakhalin and Delhi.

Behind the removal of the expensive seats, industry sources cited data that shows only around 30 percent of the first-class seats have been sold on the two top air carriers’ international routes. To ensure safer flights, the airline plans to adopt new aircraft including 19 Airbus A350s and 15 A321 Neos to its fleet by 2023. Asiana currently has 85 planes that include six A380s.

The removal of the first-class cabins and restructuring of its routes comes as the airline has been put up for sale due to the parent Kumho Asiana Group’s mounting debt.

Starting June, Korean Air will also suspend its first-class services on many of its international routes to reduce costs because the demand for the premium service is declining in favor of the seats in business and economy-class.

Korean Air has provided three travel classes - economy, prestige and first class - on 62 of its 111 international routes, while operating prestige and economy class cabins on the remaining routes. Following the adjustments, only 35 routes will offer first-class cabin services. The carrier will remodel its aircrafts to replace the first-class seats with prestige and economy class ones.

The top-class services will continue for long-haul flights such as the Americas and Europe, except for two Canadian cities - Vancouver and Toronto - and four European routes - Barcelona, Madrid, Istanbul and Zagreb. The airline plans to stop its first class services on mostly shorter routes such as China, Japan and Southeast Asia, with some exceptions.

For China, the airline will remove the seats on its 27 routes except for flights to Beijing, Shanghai, Hong Kong and Taipei. For Japan, first-class cabins will be removed on 12 routes, except for a couple of flights to Haneda, Narita, Osaka and Nagoya.